Fw: Roots in coal?

----- Original Message -----
From: "Kevin and Birgit Sharman" <ksharman@pris.bc.ca>
To: <bpayne15@juno.com>
Sent: Thursday, December 18, 2003 11:13 PM
Subject: Re: Roots in coal?

>
> >
> > I have never heard bituminous coal referred to as metamorphic. It's a
> > sedimentary rock which has been coalified, and I can certainly see how
> > the term metamorphic bolsters your position, but I am not aware that
> > gelification obscures the original textures.
>
> A quick note on the above:
>
> Coal as a metamorphic rock: Let's look at a quote from Stach et al (1982)
> "From the beginning of the hard brown-coal (sub-bituminous) stage the
> alteration of the organic material is so severe that it must be regarded
as
> metamorphism, although the essential conditions (temperature, time and
> pressure), which are necessary for the formation of bituminous coals,
> produce only weak, diagenetic changes in the associated sediments."
>
>
>
> Gelification: There are three macerals of the vitrinite group: telinite,
> collinite, and vitrodetrinite. Telinite is the preserved cell walls of
the
> original vegetation, and collinite is structureless gelified material that
> commonly fills the cells. If the reflectance and color of the collinite
is
> the same as the telinite, the cell structure will not be visible, and it
is
> obscured (not destroyed). Cell structure is more commonly preserved in
the
> inertinite maceral group.
>
> One further question for you - do you picture plant material in a floating
> mat or shed from one "fresh" (original growing vegetation) or partly
> coalified ( a ripped up peat swamp)?
>
> Thanks,
>
> Kevin
>
Received on Fri Dec 19 01:19:07 2003